Indian Pacific Transcontinental Passenger Train from Perth to Sydney, Australia, in April 2024

This is a video of the journey on the Indian Pacific transcontinental passenger train we did in April, 2024. We left Perth and journeyed across the Australian continent to Sydney. This trip was different than travelling on the Via Rail Canadian in that this train stops for short tours along the way. This trip was 3 nights and 4 days.

The equipment was especially fascinating, because they were built by Commonwealth Engineering of Australia, under license from the Budd Railcar company. This is the same company that built the cars on the Canadian. The bunk bed roomette was nearly identical to our Via Rail trip the year before, minor differences. We had a wet bath in the bathroom. We had a sofa instead of two chairs. The room had a wood finish. The cars are 75 feet long not 85 feet long. The bar car was very nice and sociable. The dining car was very familiar too. This is a very chatty train filled with mostly Australians exploring their country.

I found Southern Australia very interesting as the line near Adelaide was all CTC with many searchlight signals. As our train headed east, the line got rougher. Towards Sydney we couldn't sleep it was so rough. Comparing the rail line to CN Rail west of Edmonton where the Canadian runs, the Canadian so smooth and calm. This was a very rough train ride towards the eastern part of Australia.

I counted the trains across the continent and the railway averages about 12-16 freight trains per day in both directions. Between Perth and the Blue Mountains we met 22 trains including 3 in Burlong yard, and 3 in Kalgoorlie yard. I would recommend going to the ARTC website before your trip if you are a train buff. All of the railroad maps are available online to download which shows their passing loops. This is what sidings are called. As well, as an app called KM2ME that shows where you are on the system can be downloaded for your phone. Most of the rail line does have cell service along the right of way.

Our first stop was in the gold mining city of Kalgoorlie for a tour of the Super Pit gold mine. This was at night, and the pit was over 200m deep. They have a really nice mining museum there, plus a fun little Fringe type play on the origins of the town. We left Kalgoorlie at night for our first night on the train.

The next stop was Cook with in the middle of the Nullarbor. This is a crew change point for the railroad. We saw 2 westbound freight trains here while we were walking around this town of 2 people. The locomotive had a really nice Movember Moustache painted on it. We hit a cow the night before thus part of the locomotive ditch lights were missing. The Nullarbor was soothing looking out the window. Very enjoyable. We went to sleep travelling on the Nullarbor.

The next stop was Adelaide in the morning. We chose the city tour. Adelaide was a very nice city and they have a great stadium for the Australian Football League. We had our breakfast in the club seating area, very nice! The train ride from Adelaide to Broken Hill was a ton of fun because we had Drag Queen bingo in the bar car. It was so much fun and the drag queen was excellent, a total surprise! We went to sleep and woke up in the morning at the Blue Mountains.

The last stop before Sydney was the Blue Mountains. This was a beautiful stop with a canyon and a rainforest. There were a lot of great looking trams in this park, and a very fun experience. Some of the trams were big. The engineering was great to look at along with the scenery.

If you get of the train for this tour you get to ride the last 2 hours on a chartered double deck commuter train to Sydney instead of the Indian Pacific.

Arriving in Sydney included a few tours and a harbour lunch cruise.

The entire trip was a lot of fun, the people were great, the food was great, and the alcohol was also included. To finish the tour we saw West Side Story on the harbour, this was also included on the tour.